Scuzz
1691
I have taken Amtrak from Fresno to the Bay Area, for baseball games. It literally takes 5 1/2 hours to get to Richmond, which is as close as you can get by Amtrak. You stop at every little town a long the way. Then when you arrive you need BART and either a taxi or nice walk to get to your destination. One reason the High Speed rail plan is so stupid is it would only take about 2 hours off that time because it still stops a lot and it isn’t truly high speed.
This is an important point that other have written about here before. The US has one of the largest, and most efficient freight rail systems in the world. Folks can rightfully talk about the “neglected” and “poor repair” US rail system all they want as long as they want… but they do have to caveat that they are talking about light (passenger) rail when they do so.
Nesrie
1693
Yeah I’ve personally brought that fact up myself. I know the trains and more importantly the tracks are here. We used to have a passenger train station here years ago. Also a tunnel collapsed in the mountain, and by the time it was cleared, years, years later, a lot of those routes left.
I know we are a top rated country when it comes to commercial freight, but there is no reason we can’t commit more and do passengers too.
The biggest issue is cost… we have mountains, not the hills you see in the east, but big ass mountains and the lack of passing tracks along with speeds that might get as slow as 10 mph keeps them from wanting to pay for tracks and maintenance. Long run, still probably cheaper and planet friendly having people up and down those tracks than burning fuel and time in planes.
We’d have to build or separate the tracks & grades in order to reach REALLY usefully high speeds. The freight system has so much economic importance & precedence that it slows down every passenger train that runs on the same tracks.
TLDR; any private companies who need to lay off 30+% of their workforce (or more than 50 employees) can instead apply to have those employees get their salaries covered by the government for up to 3 months (the government covers 75% of the salary, up to a max amount). Those employees may not work during that period. The state is also going to guarantee bank loans and compensating companies who are hard hit for their fixed expenses (e.g., rent and contract obligations), as well as freezing unemployment benefits, and similar (i.e., if you’d normally be eligible for two years unemployment benefits, the next three months will not count against you).
I don’t know whether this is the right approach (can’t even say “time will tell”, because it very well might not), but you can’t fault Mette Frederiksen for being unambitious.
jpinard
1696
Way better than the shitshow we have here.
I think the UK is doing the same no? Workers get 80% of their pay from the Govt up to 2500 GBP a month, which I think is about median household income. Not sure about time limits, but it’s supposed to be backdated to March 1st.
Yes, they’re very similar - though the UK measure was introduced after Denmark’s announcement. DK has generally been a day or two ahead of the curve compared to its neighboring countries throughout this (the Norwegian PM got very annoyed a few weeks back, when questioned about this).
That being said, these measures are one of the few times I feel the UK government has actually moved in a timely manner.
“I don’t look at recessions as a bad thing. I mean, it’s bad for America. It’s bad for the people that are unemployed. It’s usually an opportunity for J.P. Morgan.” - Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase https://t.co/O6JS0oVLB0
Just another prick for the wall.
Nesrie
1701
Heh, you don’t think 600 dollars is somehow going to calm someone who had a minimum wage job, lost that, can’t pay rent anymore, any of their bills and of course has no hope of stockpiling anything? The GOP comes from a different world, apparently, to believe their tiny one and done shot will address this in a meaningful way.
He’s says, whilst convalescing from a heart operation, and in tip-top shape to fight the thing that caused the recession.
He’s basically the guy in copper armour on a mountain top in a thunderstorm shouting “all gods are bastards”
He’s basically the guy who thinks there are no pitchforks or lamp posts.
There arent any pitchforks or lampposts in his remote fortress. There probably is a poorly paid lackey who had to look after her sick mum all night though.
Enidigm
1706
For some reason i was imagining a recruitable guillotine unit in an imaginary RTS game yesterday.
“Mobile Guillotine squad, sharp and ready!”
“Where do you need la madame?”
“We’re running behind our quotas: chop chop!”
“Don’t lose your head!”
Man, this is gonna get ugly.
So about a week
